Here's one definition of youthful cynicism: When I was a teenager, I used to turn off broadcasts of Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe" when it still looked like Gary Cooper was going to jump.

That whole last-minute appeal from his girl and, "The People," as James Gleason announced them, in capital letters? The worst kind of Capra-corn. The tacked-on happy ending? A sell-out betrayal of a story that demanded to be a tragedy.

But I always watch Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" through to the end -- and charish every frame.

Capra's Christmas fable lost a lot of money when it was first released in 1946, and it was forgotten for years. I discovered it, like many people, on late-night television. And I immediately adored it.

It wasn't just the fine array of character actors, or star Jimmy Stewart, or the lovely Donna Reed. (Or the even sexier Gloria Grahame, as Violet.) It was a filmmaker working at the peak of his powers.

Donna Reed and Stewart square off.

Check out that freeze frame, when we're first introduced to Stewart -- a pretty novel device for a Hollywood movie back then. Or the careful framing of H.B Warner's druggist, when he first finds out his son has been killed.

And then there's the moody darkness of the scenes after Uncle Billy has lost the money, and Stewart's George Bailey is losing his grip. "Why did we have to have all these kids?" he snaps at his wife -- a shocking line at the time, it still arrives like a slap in the face.

H.B. Warner as the grieving Mr. Gower.

The movie was rediscovered in the '80s, and eventually became a nearly non-stop holiday staple -- so overfamiliar that it began to be mocked, or merely dismissed. The careful direction was overlooked. Stewart's great performance -- arguably his first truly mature one, and the earliest indication of the work he would do over the next decade with Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock -- was taken for granted.

They don't deserve to be.

The IFC Center in Greenwich Village is currently showing the film on the big screen, as it was meant to be seen, through Christmas; tonight, December 19th, they're even bringing in Donna Reed's daughter for a special appearance. You can read more about the screening (and the arts programs it benefits) by visiting here. )

And, if you can't quite get enough of the movie, check out this site, where online writers are blogging -- not always favorably -- about the film, as seen from a more than 60-year distance.

Most of all, though, do yourself a favor over the next week. Watch this movie again. Enjoy its beautiful photography, sterling performances and the way Grahame sashays down the street. Appreciate how despairing its view of middle-class America can be, with Stewart sacrificing everything for his family only to have it all cruelly torn away.

Just be sure you stick around for the happy ending. George Bailey has earned it -- and so have you.